So, book haul. I'm quite proud of myself, these are all of the books I have got this year so far. And it's only 14 books. 7 in Finnish, 7 in English. And I have only bought books when I have read books I hadn't read before, as is my rule. It's not a book buying ban, I know, but that would just be cruel.
First is City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare, the last book in the Mortal Instruments series, which is about badass demon hunters and vampires and werewolves and a girl who isn't as human as she thought she would. And then there is a boy. And I actually really loved the first three, some years ago when I was younger. Now... This last one was not as good as the first three in the series, but better than numbers four and five. And Alec and Magnus, being their magnificent selves, made this a lot better. Still, I only gave this 2 out of 5 stars, because I think the story should have ended in the third book, and I only bought this because I had to know what happened after book five. Couldn't leave the series there, even if I kind of wanted to. I might do a review on the whole series later, but I won't promise anything.
Next we have Panic by Lauren Oliver. Panic is set in a small town where there is nothing to do during summer, so the teenagers have invented a game called Panic. It's about a series of scary tasks you have to complete, and the winner will get a huge amount of money. I saw a lot of videos where people talked about this book, and just had to buy it to see what I would think. And I know a lot of people have said they couldn't really get attached to the characters / get into the story etc. but I really enjoyed this. I think I read it in a day, just couldn't put it down. 4 out of 5 stars.
Then, Hollow City by Ransom Riggs, the second book of the Miss Peregrine's series I believe it's called. The sequel to Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children, anyway. I can't really tell anything about this as it starts right where the first book ended, but you should know it has cool pictures. And I don't really know why, but it took me a really long time to read this book. It was really fast, a lot was happening in a really short amount of time, and it felt a bit rushed. I did like it a bit more towards the end, though, but I still kept mixing the characters with each other. I'm torn between 3 and 3.5 stars.
Next is a book I haven't yet read, as I just bought it a week ago. Breakfast at Darcy's by Ali McNamara is exactly the type of book I read as a sort of guilty pleasure; I don't know if I should admit that I read these books. But it looked like a fun read and was only 3€ at my local library. The main character has inherited an island, but in order to fully claim it she has to live there for a year with a bunch of other people, and that's about all I know about this. I will probably save this one for winter, just because the cover has snowflakes in it.
Divergent, Insurgent and Allegiant by Veronica Roth. Set in a dystopian future where the people are divided into factions based on their personalities. The main character is 16 and has to choose whether to stay in her old faction or go to a new one and never see her family again, and that's basically how the story stars. There is a revolution and awful leaders and of course a love story (...). I was mainly interested in these because they were talked about a lot, partly because of the movie. I think I was too old for these, I just didn't really like them, and found the main character really annoying. The first one was the best of the three, the other two... meh. I was also spoiled on the ending of book three and that really made it worse for me. 3 stars for the first, 2 for the next ones. Also I feel like I should mention I liked the Divergent movie more than the book.
Next is Persuasion by Jane Austen, which I absolutely loved. The main character was engaged to this man when they were younger, but now many years have passed and they meet again, and the story is about how they handle the old feelings that aren't at all dead or forgotten. It was so cute and lovely and just perfect. I might even say it's better than Pride and Prejudice, which I also love a lot. 5 out of 5 stars and straight to my favourites -shelf.
Then another book I gave 5 stars to, Metro 2033 by Dmitri Gluhovski (or Dmitry Glukhovsky as it's spelled on goodreads). This book fucked me up a bit. I started it at night, and after one chapter of being scared I decided to read this only when the sun was up. Seriously, I have never been this scared when reading. And it was so good. I even made my flatmate read it. It's about the world after a war, where what's left of humanity lives underground in the Moscow metro, fighting enemies from inside and out, and the main character might be the only one that can save humanity from extinction.
I have just realized this will be a really long post, but I haven't read the last five books so maybe I won't have that much to say about them. I hope.
The Summer of Dead Toys by Antonio Hill is about a detective that gets assigned a case of a 19-year-old boy who has fallen from a window, but it isn't what it seems. I'm quite excited about this, and that's a lot coming from someone who doesn't really like crime thrillers like this.
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak is set in Nazi Germany where a girl reads stolen books to her neighbours and a Jewish man hiding in the cellar. I don't really know anything about the story, I just know a lot of people have absolutely loved this book. That was all it took for me to buy it. That and the fact that it was cheap.
Resurrection by Steve Alten, a sequel to Domain. (And I have just found out this is a trilogy. Oh boy.) Can't really tell much about this without spoiling Domain, but it's about the end of the world and stuff. Took me forever to read Domain, but I read it at the perfect time as the events took place in 2012 and that's when I was reading it. So I didn't mind taking forever to read. I don't honestly know how excited I am about Resurrection, since Domain was what it was. But we'll see, maybe I'll get around reading this one some day.
Next one is a book by a Finnish author, Con Rit by Risto Isomäki. This is also about the end of the world or something along those lines. I know, I have bought really cheerful books this year. A thriller, too. I don't know, something about this seemed so interesting to me but I can't really explain what.
Aaand last but not least, Stardust by Neil Gaiman, who happens to be my favourite author. This is about a boy who goes to a fantasy world to look for a fallen star to give to a girl he's in love with. I really really like the movie, so I wasn't sure if I'd even want to read this, but I found this at the library the same time I got Breakfast at Darcy's, and I just can't resist cheap books. Or Neil Gaiman.
